Man of the match at Wargrave Cricket Club’s Sunday fixture was awarded to the unlikeliest of players - a pet parrot.

Cricketers at the club’s Recreation Road site had a surprise guest on Sunday afternoon when Lucky, an Alexandrine parrot, flew onto the pitch.

Luke Taylor, the first team’s leading run scorer, said: “We were having a club match, as our two teams have just been promoted, and the parrot just came down and landed by the door in front of the club house.

“He was sat on the picket fence and then was flying around trying to land on our heads. He was such a friendly, inquisitive bird, some of the players were putting their arms out and he was landing on them.

“I was a little bit concerned by how friendly it was as I thought a cat or something could easily get it, so I took him inside.”

A team mate of Mr Taylor initially tweeted a picture of the parrot but Mr Taylor decided to see if he could track down the bird’s owner by searching recent tweets.

He then came across a missing poster and contacted the user, who turned out to be Lucky’s owner, Amena Siddiqui, of Broomfield Road, Tilehurst - more than 10 miles away.

Lucky flew 10 miles from his home in Tilehurst to take in the surroudings of Wargrave's cricket ground

“Someone must have forgotten to close the latch properly when they were feeding him,” said Ms Siddiqui, who first discovered her beloved bird was missing on Friday, at about 2pm.

“When we realised he was missing we contacted the police and the RSPCA and put leaflets and posters up in our area.

“It was only on Sunday that I decided to put something on Twitter and then not long after the cricket club phoned me and asked me if I had lost a parrot.

“I rushed over to confirm it was him and he was sat in the changing rooms drinking some water. Apparently he was sat on a table outside before eating some crumbs, so he must have been hungry.”

The 25-year-old, who works at Wigwam Day Nursery in Reading, took Lucky home, where he was reunited with his feathered friend, Happy, who "squeaked and squawked" when he saw him.

Ms Siddiqui added: “Lucky’s never escaped before. For his first adventure, he flew quite far.”